The Arcades Project - Operi

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Episodes in the June Insurrection: 'Women were seen pouring boiling oil or hot
water on the soldiers while shrieking and bellowing. In many places, insurgents
were given hrandy mixed with various ingl'edients, so that they would he excited to
madness . ... Some women cut off the sexual organs of several imprisoned guardsmen,
and we know that an insurgent dressed in woman"s clothing beheaded a
number of captured officers ... ; people saw the heads of soldiers on pikes that
were planted atop harricades. Many things recounted were pure invention-for
example that. the insurgents had pinioned captured guardsmen between two
hoards and sawed them, while alive, into pieces. On the other hand, things did in
fact occur that were no less horrihle . ... Many insurgents used bullets of a type
that could not be removed from wounds after shooting, hecause a wire had heen
inserted into these bullets which sprang out. from the sides of them on impact.
Behind numerous barricades were spray guns, which were used to spray sulphuric
acid on attacking soldiers. It would be impossible to detail all the fiendish harllarities
perpetrated by both sides in this action; we shall merely ohserve that world
history can point to nothing comparable." EngHinder, vol. 2, pp. 288-289.
[a2a,2J
June Insurrection. 'On many closed shops, the insurgents would write: 'Respect
Property! Death to Thieves!' Many Hags on the barricades bore the words: 'Bread
and Work.' On the Rue Saint-Martin, on the first day, a jeweler's shop stayed open
without being threatened by any sort of harm, while, a few steps beyond, a store
with a supply of scrap iron was plundered . ... Many insurgents, during the bat.tle,
had assemhled their wives and children on the barricades, and cried: 'Since we
can no longer feed them, we want at least to die all together!' While the men
fought, the women made gunpowder and their children cast bullets, using every
piece of lead or tin that fell into their hands. Often the children molded the bullets
with thimbles. At night., while the combatants were sleeping, girls would drag
paving stones to the harricades." Englander, vol. 2, pp. 291, 293. [a2a,3]
Barricades of 184.8: " More t.han 4,00 were eounted. Many, fronted by trenehes and
battlements, reached a height of two stories." Malet and Gdllet, XIXe Sifcle
(Paris, 1919), p. 249. [a2a,4J
"In 1839, some workers in Paris founded a newspaper with the title La Ruche
populair·e.2 • • • The editorial office of this puhlication was located in the poorest
section of the city, on the Rue des Quatre Fils. It. was one of the few worker-run
newspapers to have an audience among the genenll population, which can be
explained by the tendency it followed. That is, it took as its program the goal of
hringing hidden misery to the notiee of wealthy benefactors . . , . In the office of
this journal a register of misery lay open, in which every starveling eould inscribe
his name. It. was imposing, this register of misfortune, and since at this period Les
Mysteres de Pm'is, hy Eugene Sue, had hrought charity into fashion within high
sodety, one often saw private carriages pull up hefore the dirty premises of the
editorial office and blase ladies step forth to secure addresses of the unfortunate;